High Court reinstates ex-Tripura law secretary

Agartala, Nov 15 (IANS) Datamohan Jamatia was reinstated by the Tripura High Court a year after he was removed as law secretary for allegedly making “derogatory remarks” about the judiciary, an official said here on Tuesday.

The official said that the Tripura High Court’s Registrar General Satya Gopal Chattopadhyay in a notification late Monday transferred Jamatia as the Legal Remembrancer and Law Department Secretary from district and sessions judge of Unakoti district.

Acting Legal Remembrancer and Law Secretary A.K.Nath has been transferred to Unakoti district as district and sessions judge.

The official said that the court in November 2015 removed Jamatia and transferred as the district and sessions judge of Unakoti district for making the alleged “derogatory remark” about the judiciary in an official note to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The tussle between the high court and the state government kicked off after the court had issued the notification transferring Jamatia as district and sessions judge of Unakoti district.

Law Minister Chakraborty, in his letter to the then chief justice Deepak Gupta, expressed the state government’s inability to relieve Jamatia as law secretary as he was looking after important cases pending in the Supreme Court and elections to the local bodies in Tripura.

The high court had turned down the law minister’s plea and stuck to its decision.

A division bench of the high court in April wanted contempt of court charges to be framed against Jamatia for making the “derogatory remark”.

Jamatia denied making any such remarks and filed a petition before the Supreme Court against the high court decision.